Upside-down cake kinda weather day. Started perfect, then it poured... then sunny, and poured again. Weird thing was the forecast said 90% sunny all day. So clearly, we’re in the top 10%!
While skies were bright, Trickey Pond was the place to be. Conditions were ideal for standup paddle boarding, canoeing and kayaking. The dedicated and patient H2O team does whatever it takes to make swim lessons fun. We’re especially proud of the beginners.
The waterfront at Skylemar is very deep – 30’. We want everyone, despite their swim level to enjoy the giant inflatables, so the rule is that we wear life jackets. That way a beginner swimmer can have fun with a friend who’s advanced. The kids love the Iceberg – a giant climbing wall that you jump off of. The Beast is a humongous slide adjacent to a water trampoline. Then there’s the Rope Swing and the Pontoon (our floating diving tower).
The Ski Dock is known for getting every single person willing to try to get up on skis. They have a top-secret method that’s shared only with the country’s finest instructors who happen to work at Skylemar. It starts with massive amounts of enthusiasm, encouragement and patience. Best of all, when the kid gets up it’s a golden moment for those in the boat as well as the dock-full of exuberant supporters.
Before long, one moves from the boom to the short rope to the full-length line. Eventually it’s slalom and maybe even the Mau Mau Challenge (barefoot skiing).
Today Henry Z (Bunk 6), Miles B (Bunk 4), Brady J (Bunk 5), Henry G (Bunk 5), Sawyer (Bunk 5), Jacob W (Bunk 5) and Zeus M (Bunk 26) got up for the very first time. Way to go!
As if it was planned, the recent rainstorms have come consistently from 11:40-12:40. That’s the Clinic Period, when each camper selects an activity that they’ll work on for a week. Signing up for Clinics is really fun in itself. There are typically 14 or so choices, and the counselors advertise what they’re offering with a skit called a “commercial”. Each camper has a Golden Ticket with his name on it, which he gives to the counselor offering the class that he wishes to take.
For example, this week’s choices included “World Cup Soccer”, “Captain Jack Sparrow Sailing”, “Magic Touch Lax”, “Golf with Josh”, “Catch & Launch Football”, “Tennis Groundstrokes”, “Shepherdy Reading Clinic”, “Hockey Combine with Coach Jim”, “Ski Dock Refresher”, “Water Games at the Lake”, “Handles Hoops Clinic”, “Spanish Tapas Making at SkyDeck”, “SkyPines Fire Building” and The Lab’s “Bigger Stronger Faster Clinic”.
Hardest part is deciding which to choose!
